WA priest told boy abuse was 'tradition'

A former Anglican priest accused of sexually abusing five boys over a 30-year period told one complainant it was tradition for a priest to undress an altar boy, a Perth court has heard.

Raymond Sydney Cheek, 84, is on trial in the West Australian District Court charged with committing an act of gross indecency and two counts each of indecent assault and indecent dealings with a child between 1955 and 1985.

One complainant, 48, testified on Wednesday that he was an altar boy in 1976 when he was eight or nine, and remembered Cheek as a "large, red-faced man" aged in his 30s.

He said on his first day as an altar boy, Cheek stripped him naked, leaving only his shoes on, and placed a robe on him, touching his genitals with his hands and the tassels of the waist rope.

The complainant said it happened every Sunday for a few years and it made him feel uncomfortable, but Cheek referred to the Bible and said it was tradition for a priest to dress an altar boy.

"He seemed to be very convincing as to reasons why he did it," he said.

The man never told anyone about the abuse until Cheek made headlines, the court heard.